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Monday, May 31, 2010

3 months had past since the start of Video of the Month (VoM). The response had been quite encouraging (YTD 14 entries in 3 months) and I am very happy for that. I believe that many great things in life starts small, and like a snowball rolling down a slope, continue to gather momentum and magnitude as we move along.

And today I am very happy to announce another contest for cheerleaders in Singapore - Blog Post of the Month (BPoM).

So what is BPoM and how did BPoM came about?

Lee Chaang Ru, current coach and Vice Chairman of Wildcards Cheerleading Team smsed me about a week ago and suggested this idea to me. You can say we are quite liked minded in trying to promote cheerleading in Singapore. Similar to my love for video making and the use of videos to promote cheer; Chaang is argubly the person who started or popularized the use of Team Blogs in SG Cheer. Chaang felt that blogging is a great window to share information, ideas and passion for cheerleading. In saying all that, Chaang is going to match me Dollar for Dollar for what I contribute to VoM, to start this new contest, BPoM. We then had our discussion about implementation and the rest is history.

We hoped that in doing this, we can raise the awareness to more cheerleaders or ex-cheerleaders, that they too can play a part. And like a rolling snowball, with the combined efforts of everyone, many of our dreams such as that of having a "cheerleading scholarship" may one day materialise, and bring SG Cheer to new heights.

Quoting a paragraph from my original VoM post:"I believe that most cheerleaders can agree with me that cheerleading changed their lives in more ways than 1. Most would have treasured the times they had in cheer, despite of all the hectic schedules, injuries, sacrifices and grievances. It will forever become a deep part of their memories in life. Now if we did enjoyed our time and appreciate what cheer had done for us; I feel that it will be very nice if we can return the favour and spread the joy to many new and future generations of cheerleaders, so that they can get to experience the many positives cheerleading has done for us too."

Details of challenge: Simply write a blog post about anything related to cheerleading. It can be on nutrition, training, competitions or just simply your own thoughts or vision of anything cheer related. Then copy and paste the post's URL to your facebook status (What's on your mind?) and tag me (XWonder Estrella) in the status. (to tag simply type in your status [posturl][space]@XWonder Estrella, i.e: http://www.xwondercheer.com/2010/03/video-of-month.html @XWonder Estrella) After that, it will be considered as an entry for BPoM challenge. Chaang and I will read through all entries and co-review the entries, then at the end of each month, also on every 5th, the winner will be announced on this blog (our decision is final).

Participant's eligibility: Similar to VoM, you are eligible as long as you cheer in Singapore; regardless of nationality, team, age, or gender. You can be writing and posting on your personal blog or team blog, it does not matter, both are eligible. You need to be on Facebook and is my friend to tag me. Tagging on behalf or your friend or someone's post is allowed and it will be assumed that you have their permission to do so (please read detailed disclaimer at the bottom of this post).If you are not yet my friend on Facebook, just add me using the link at top of the page.

Prizes: $50 cash or dollar for dollar as VoM to the winner each month. In cases where the person who tagged and the person who post (blogger) is different, the prize will be split half to the person who tagged and half to the blogger. In the event there is no entry for the month, the prize money will accumulate and be brought over to the next month. Prize money is subjected to increase at any time without notice.

Being Singaporeans, we all love sales and offers. In the spirit of the Great Singapore Sales now, Chaang is offering an early bird promotion. If you post on your blog and tag within the next 10days, and if you win (results out on 05July10), you will be entitled to 50% more. i.e: $75.

1 suggestion from me - You can make a great video and enter it for VoM then write a great post on your blog embedding that video as a add on to enhance your blog post and enter the post for BPoM; this way you stand a chance to win both contest, and if you do, that is $100 in total. So what are we waiting for, let's all get our pens ready and write, or should I say fingers ready and type.

Disclaimer:

By tagging us on a blog post, it is taken that you have obtained the necessary permission to do so by the blog owner &/or blogger to have its contents shared on the World Wide Web. The authenticity of the said blog post shall be at the sole responsibility of the blogger &/or blog owner, and we will not be liable for the authenticity of any of the blog contents. Please exercise discretion when reading any of the blog posts tagged.

The information in the blogs tagged does not constitute an offer or an invitation by or on behalf of xwondercheer.com to subscribe or purchase any products/services/training methods/recommendations which may be described or referenced to therein. Any information given in this blog post is indicative only, is subject to change and does not constitute an obligation to believe in the contents described. Any reference to any information should be treated as preliminary only and subject to our formal written confirmation.

P.S: The disclaimers are written by Chaang; being a banker by profession, Chaang comes up with the best disclaimers. And being a disclaimer, the font sizes are always smaller. Haha, lol.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Below is a picture I drawn 2 years ago before I master Liberty Tick Tock. I set the target date to hit it on 28th May 2008. In fact I hit it a couple of weeks before 28th. (A post 2 years ago describing about training my Tick Tock: Ease)

Goal setting is very important, and it is also very important that you set a timeline for it. This way you can work towards a target within a specific time. Setting a target date often puts you into more urgency.

Other than setting your goals and timeline, what I like to do is to draw and scribble it out onto a piece of paper. Drawing out your goals can often help you to achieve it, to attract it to you. The more passion and details you put into the drawing, the more you will attract it.

P.S: I draw myself to be much muscular than in reality, but that's fine; it is something to work towards.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The 7th entry of June, posted and tagged by Ruth again. Full-Up gladiator is considered a stunt of relative high difficulty, but made to look so simple in this video. The key for a good performance is to make a high level routine looks easy.

This is the 6th entry of June, posted and tagged by Ruth. Ruth career in cheerleading started in 2005 when she joined NTU ACES. She is a 3 times National Champion for team and also the first ever Partner Stunt Champion in Singapore. I very strong mid and versatile player. Her base in the video, Kah Weng is also a 2 times National Champion. I have watched this guy improved so much over the past few years. Now definitely one of the top bases in SG. Well done guys, great job on the full around.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

5th video of June done by Yiqian from Gusto. Fantastic video, it really made me laughed, a good way to start my morning. Gusto is indeed a great team, not only in terms of their skills, but also in terms of their team spirit and bonding. You can see how much fun they are having in the video. This video demonstrates how cheerleading is suppose to be like; everyone having fun while improving together. Great job by Weihan and Ainslie once again for hitting the rewind, you probably did it 10 years earlier/younger than the other rewind I've seen done in SG. Great future ahead for all of you.

This is the 4th video of the month June. It is uploaded and tagged by Weihan. This video shows hard work put in by Gusto and finally paid off by hitting the group stunt rewind. Nice pop twist dismounts too. Very good job by Ainslie, in my opinion, one of the best flyers around. Very good job from the bases as well.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Everyone around me seems to be talking about Ip Man after they watched it; and most had very good reviews of the movie. Well I liked the show too after I watched it; it is not only a show about the fighting actions, but also a show with lots of little lessons in life.

Ip Man (as portrayed in the movie) was indeed a very patient, virtous, kind, humble, helpful and generous man. I think he has many more virtues than listed above; those are just a few of my summary. He really makes me feel small about myself at times, I am still far from being a great man like him. In the show, he also had many wise words and sayings; some practical lessons about life in his own words, but it is not only these wise words that I got out of the show. As I was watching this one part, some thoughts drifted into my mind...

This particular part of the show that made my mind ponder was the part when he was collecting money from his students. Being a very nice, kind and helpful person as he is, he could not bear to collect some money from some of his students, even though he himself needed the money as much, if not more than the students. He had 1 kid and a pregnant wife to feed, but yet his soft heartedness prevents him from collecting hard earned money that is so crucial to their survival.

In this practical world, even the nicest person has to eat. So 1 thing that I learnt is that some things are better left to the professionals. If it is hard or maybe "paiseh" for you to collect money, you can always get a 3rd party to collect it for you, an admin staff or an agent. This is why in society there are all sorts of agents that offer their services to people. For example every player in EPL has an agent, or almost everyone has an insurance agent (now being re-branded as financial planner). So some things that may be hard for you to negotiate or handle, you can always get an agent to get things done for you. I can almost feel the sense of awkardness that the teacher, Ip Man felt when he had to collect money himself from his students.

I am not saying that one should be cold hearted or cruel, but sometimes people may be pulling a fast one on you. If you do not take care of your own survival, who will? Things always gets sensitive when money comes into play. Another of my favorite lines, "Do you have 200 men who depend on you to feed?"

P.S: Only when you start helping yourself, then you can start helping others. Being broke is temporary, but being poor is eternal.

Monday, May 10, 2010

贵在平和，不争之争。Congrats on everyone’s achievement so far because i think the effort you have put in made you deserve the honor, but gaining the title is not equivalent to having the rights to put others down. While there may be a difference in statuses/achievements (regardless of in life, in work or in cheer), one cannot attempt to diminish the integrity of others. You want respect from others, want it because you are worth it, not because it can be used as a weapon to attack others around you.

一个人能才华横溢，并不是靠贬低其他人而得来的。你有什么能力，不需要影片记录每个人心知肚明，更不需要你踩踏别人才能显得你高贵优雅。

才华有分高低，但自尊并没有分贵贱。不需要放话，也不需要特地引我们瞩目。因为，真的，没有人稀罕。

You can choose to become a great man who had to be hated by many in order to achieve a greater good, but many may also choose to hate you simply because you are not a good enough man. This can only be seen and debated on in the future, not now.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

In athletics, the four-minute mile is the running of a mile (exactly 1,609.344 meters, 5280 feet) in less than four minutes. For many years, the scientific and athletic communities thought that it was impossible to run a four-minute mile. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3'59.4". The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds.

Running a mile in under 4 minutes had been impossible to everyone in the past, until Roger Bannister did it in 1954. After his amazing feat, the mile had been ran under 4 minutes countless times. The role he played in all this was great, it made people overcome their mental barriers and pushed their performances up a notch.

The 1st rewind is done and dusted, now many more will follow. It had always been like that, from the days of toss cupie to full up and now to rewind - more will follow.

Quote: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle--when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Roger Bannister

P.S: I think this is a very inspiring quote - If you trained like your life depends on it, you can be sure you will succeed; it doesn't matter who you are.

This is the 3rd video of June is uploaded and tagged by Zhaoming. Well done Zhaoming and Jiahui. The first local pairing for rewind I seen. Nice video too for showing almost the entire process of training

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The 2nd video of June is uploaded and tagged by Zhaoming. Zhaoming is one of the early cheerleaders who played a part in "modernising" cheerleading and techniques in Singapore; bringing his passion for cheerleading to many people. He is also sometimes a person of controversy, but it is simply due to his whole hearted passion and commitment to the sport; love him or hate him, he will be around for years to come. Zhaoming was never the biggest or strongest around, but he never fail to constantly improve on his techiques and push stunts to new heights in Singapore. Watch out for this man. Though I am in part of the video; but I still have to say that it is a job well done for the toss up double cupie.

P.S: Being hated is the key to being success; you simply cannot please everyone, but you are at least doing right by your own convictions. "Every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many." (Taken from Adrian Tan speech at NTU convo 2008)

Friday, May 7, 2010

I have an announcement to make: The prize for VoM Contest June'10 has just been increased from $50 to $100.

Thanks alot to Andrew and Yvonne for giving up the chance to take home the prize they won for VoM Contest May and re-contributing it back to VoM Contest June.

Andrew said:

"Our aim is to promote cheer and stuffs, money is secondary and a bonus"

Salute to them for having the right mindset and attitude towards cheerleading.

Their video will automatically be reconsidered as the 1st entry for June. So people out there reading this, start posting your videos; and not make it that easy for them again.

P.S: Just to take a nice video requires time and effort, then to compile and create a video with effects and music takes even more skills. Winning without competition does not take anything away from a great video.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

So without any contest this month, we hereby announce the winner for Vom May'10 goes to...

Andrew from Magnum Force. *Round of applause*

Very nice video made by Andrew that showcases himself trying some really elite stunts. Great job put in by his flyer Yvonne too. What I really liked about the video is the never say die attitude; you can see that they had tried doing that toss cupie liberty for more than 1 training from the different shirts they wore. Not being afraid to show your failures and keep working on them is an exemplary quality to show to everyone. Good job for incorporating humour into the video as well.

Congratulations once again Andrew, you won $50.

The response this month had not been ideal, but it will take nothing away from the only winning video entry; it was really a well done video. Ok after some review, some changes are made for the VoM contest to promote more video entries. Now you may post and/or tag me in videos that feature your friends(The other eligibility criteria still applies); then I will proceed to get permission from person who posted it(if the person who posted it is not you yourself), to allow you to take part in VoM contest using a video he/she posted and for you to stand a chance to win. Hope to see more great videos next month. (note: person who tags me gets to win the prize)

P.S: Andrew, I will try my best to go find you before you shave off all your hair =)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

This is something we can try to work towards. Instead of tireless training hours after hours, we can focus instead of training everyone to be proficient in their skills. This way we can achieve quality instead of quantity trainings. Trainings will become very efficient instead of draggy. In this way, we might prevent killing off people's passion due to burnouts, and in turn reduce dropout rates and increase rentention; people will continue to love what they are doing.

We all know the importance of "work - life balance". In the same essence, we should also pay more attention to "Cheer - Life balance"

P.S: Everyone, everyteam has different style, but in my opinion, efficiency is something we all should have.

Monday, May 3, 2010

It always sounds very simple and easy to listen to the techniques someone tells you in order to hit a particular stunt. But after you try it yourself, trying to implement whatever is taught to you, you start to realise that it is not as simple as it sounds and may start to get frustrated after repeatedly failing even though you are already being "taught"

For example a simple advice like lock your arms and suck in your core can actually be so much tougher when you try to implement it in real life. Usually what can be taught to you are only the right way of doing stunts, the feeling of doing the stunt can never be taught to you; this is the feeling you have to grasp yourself.

Then the funny thing to me most of the times is that after one mastered the stunt, they will start to teach it to others in the same "simple and easy to listen" way. So my conclusion is sometimes when something is taught to you, it might not make sense at first, it is hard to "do what you hear", but after you master it, then you look back and will realize that it made perfect sense now.

How many of you bases had heard something like this before,"Just go down with flyer and then use your legs and blast up together with flyer when she jumps, then flick off hard with your arms at the highest point and catch her feet high." Sounds simple right? But grasping it fully and then doing it is not easy; but the day you master it, it will all make sense suddenly.